Zophar Speaks: The Wicked Will Suffer

20 Then cZophar the Naamathite answered and said:

2  “Therefore my dthoughts answer me,

because of my haste within me.

3  I hear censure that insults me,

and out of my understanding a spirit answers me.

4  Do you not know this from of old,

esince man was placed on earth,

5  fthat the exulting of the wicked is short,

and the joy of the godless but for a moment?

6  gThough his height mount up to the heavens,

and his head reach to the clouds,

7  he will perish forever like his own hdung;

those who have seen him will say, i‘Where is he?’

8  He will fly away like ja dream and not be found;

he will be chased away like a vision of the night.

9  kThe eye that saw him will see him no more,

nor will his place any more behold him.

10  His children will seek the favor of the poor,

and his hands will lgive back his wealth.

11  His bones are full of his myouthful vigor,

but it will lie ndown with him in the dust.

12  “Though evil is sweet in his mouth,

though he hides it ounder his tongue,

13  though he is loath to let it go

and holds it in his mouth,

14  yet his food is turned in his stomach;

it is the venom of pcobras within him.

15  He swallows down riches and vomits them up again;

God casts them out of his belly.

16  He will suck the poison of cobras;

qthe tongue of a viper will kill him.

17  He will not look upon rthe rivers,

the streams flowing with shoney and tcurds.

18  He will ugive back the fruit of his toil

and will not vswallow it down;

from the profit of his trading

he will get no enjoyment.

19  For he has crushed and abandoned the poor;

he has seized a house that he did not build.

20  “Because he wknew no xcontentment in his belly,

yhe will not let anything in which he delights escape him.

21  There was nothing left after he had eaten;

therefore his prosperity will not endure.

22  In the fullness of his sufficiency he will be in distress;

the hand of everyone in misery will come against him.

23  To fill his belly to the full,

God1 will send his burning anger against him

and rain it upon him zinto his body.

24  aHe will flee from an iron weapon;

ba bronze arrow will strike chim through.

25  It dis drawn forth and comes out of his body;

ethe glittering point comes out of his fgallbladder;

gterrors come upon him.

26  Utter darkness is laid up for his treasures;

ha fire not fanned will devour him;

what is left in his tent will be consumed.

27  iThe heavens will reveal his iniquity,

and the earth will rise up against him.

28  The possessions of his house will be carried away,

dragged off in the day of God’s2 wrath.

29  jThis is the wicked man’s portion from God,

jthe heritage decreed for him by God.”